Feeding Our Future: “Youth” (re)visited

We wind up our free-food tour of the Twin Cities with stops at two “Youth”-related commercial buildings.

We’ve previously covered the rise and fall of the short-lived nonprofit Youth Inventors Lab, headquartered in this storefront on University Avenue in St. Paul:

The address was Subject Premises No. 3 in this FBI search warrant. The actual entrance is around the back, in an alley,

This back-alley entrance was said to be serving 3,300 children per day, under the sponsorship of Feeding Our Future, as reported by the FBI. The “Epic” referred to on the door was Epic Therapy, another short-lived nonprofit said to be capable of serving an additional 5,500 children per day, under the sponsorship of the rival nonprofit network Partners in Nutrition.

Our final stop on the tour is 651 Taft Street NE. This office building, in an industrial area in northeast Minneapolis, is the headquarters of Youth Leadership Academy. Doing business as “Gar Gaar Family Services,” Youth Leadership was the third large free-food network shut down by the state Department of Education.

Last month, Youth Leadership Academy won its appeal against the Department. It has not been reinstated, as of today.

It has operated 30 sites under the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) before being shut down. Its application to participate in the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), was denied by the Department. It is appealing that decision to the state Court of Appeals.